WrestleMania 35
WrestleMania 35 was the thirty-fifth annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event and WWE Network event produced by WWE for the Raw, SmackDown and 205 Live brands. It took place on April 7, 2019 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The event included the first-ever women's main event match in WrestleMania history. The card consisted of sixteen matches, including four on the pre-show. In the main event, Becky Lynch defeated Raw Women's Champion Ronda Rousey and SmackDown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair in a winner takes all triple threat match to win both titles, becoming a double champion. Also on the card, Kofi Kingston defeated Daniel Bryan to win his first WWE Championship, also simultaneously becoming WWE's 30th Triple Crown Champion and 20th Grand Slam Champion. Other prominent matches saw Seth Rollins defeat Brock Lesnar to win the Universal Championship, Baron Corbin defeated Kurt Angle in Angle's farewell match, and Triple H defeated Batista in a No Holds Barred match with his career on the line, which was also Batista's final match. Production Background WrestleMania is considered WWE's flagship event, having been described as the Super Bowl of sports entertainment. The event will be the first WrestleMania to be held in the state of New Jersey since 2013 (at the same venue). This is the fourth WrestleMania to be held in the state of New Jersey (IV, V, 29), and the sixth in the New York City Metropolitan Area (I, 2, X, XX, 29). On November 5, 2018, traveling packages for the event were sold; tickets went on sale on November 16, 2018, with individual tickets costing from $35 to $2,500. On the March 4 episode of Raw, Colin Jost and Micheal Che of Saturday Night Live were announced as special correspondents. The following week, it was revealed that Alexa Bliss would be the host of WrestleMania 35. On the March 18 episode of Raw, Elias announced that he would perform at WrestleMania. Celebrity involvement As is tradition, WrestleMania 35 will feature multiple celebrities as part of the event. On the March 4 episode of Raw, Colin Jost and Michael Che of Saturday Night Live (SNL) were introduced as special correspondents for the event, and were later entered into the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. Joan Jett will perform her song "Bad Reputation" live for Ronda Rousey's ring entrance. Gospel music star and syndicated radio host Yolanda Adams will perform "America the Beautiful" to kick off the main card of WrestleMania. Storylines The card will include matches resulting from scripted storylines and have results predetermined by WWE on the Raw and SmackDown brands. At Survivor Series, then-SmackDown Women's Champion Becky Lynch was scheduled to face Raw Women's Champion Ronda Rousey in a champion versus champion match. However, Lynch was pulled from the match due to injury; on the Raw prior to Survivor Series, Lynch led SmackDown's women's roster in an invasion of Raw and attacked Rousey, but during the brawl, she suffered a legitimate broken nose and concussion thanks to a punch from Nia Jax. Charlotte Flair replaced Lynch at Survivor Series, but lost to Rousey by disqualification after brutally attacking her with kendo sticks. Rousey would get her revenge on both Lynch and Flair by interfering in their triple threat Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs, causing Lynch to lose the SmackDown Women's Championship to Asuka. At the Royal Rumble, Lynch was unsuccessful in regaining the title in the event's opening match, while Rousey retained the Raw Women's Championship against Sasha Banks. Later that night during the women's Royal Rumble match, Lynch entered the match at #28, taking the place of an injured Lana, and won, last eliminating Flair, thus earning a women's championship match of her choice at WrestleMania 35. The next night on Raw, Lynch confronted Rousey, choosing to face Rousey for the Raw Women's Championship at WrestleMania. At the Royal Rumble, Seth Rollins won the men's Royal Rumble match by last eliminating Braun Strowman, thus earning a world championship match of his choice at WrestleMania 35. The next night on Raw, Chief Operating Officer Triple H gave Rollins until the end of the night to choose which champion he wanted to face. Later, Rollins confronted Universal Champion Brock Lesnar, who had retained his title at the Royal Rumble against Finn Bálor. In an ensuing brawl, Rollins received six F-5s from the champion, after being taunted by Rollins. Afterwards, Rollins made his choice that he wanted to face Lesnar for the Universal Championship at WrestleMania. Rollins and Lesnar's last encounter at a WrestleMania was WrestleMania 31 in which Rollins cashed-in his Money in the Bank contract during a match between Lesnar and Roman Reigns, turning the match into a triple threat match in which Rollins pinned Reigns to win Lesnar's then-WWE World Heavyweight Championship (now WWE Championship). On the SmackDown 1000 special on October 16, 2018, Batista, who had last wrestled in WWE in 2014, made an appearance alongside Ric Flair, Randy Orton, and Triple H for an Evolution reunion. During the segment, Batista praised Orton and Flair. He then praised Triple H for having done everything in the wrestling business, except defeat him; during Batista's first singles run in 2005, he defeated Triple H in all three of their only matches against each other. The two had a tense stare down before embracing, seemingly showing that there was no ill will between the two. On the February 25, 2019 episode of Raw, a celebration for Flair's 70th birthday was planned, however, Flair did not show. The camera then showed that Batista had attacked Flair backstage, and Batista asked if Triple H had his attention. The following week, Triple H called out Batista to meet him face-to-face. On the March 11, 2019 episode of Raw, Kurt Angle announced that he will wrestle in his farewell match at WrestleMania 35, after which he will retire from wrestling. The following week, Angle said that The McMahon Family allowed him to choose his WrestleMania opponent. Angle said there were many opponents he would like to face, but there was only one he wanted to beat. Angle decided to pick Baron Corbin due to the many problems Corbin caused Angle while Angle was the Raw General Manager from 2017–2018. Corbin had also caused Angle to lose his position as General Manager and Corbin subsequently became the Acting Raw General Manager until December 2018. At Crown Jewel, Shane McMahon won the WWE World Cup, replacing The Miz in the finals, who was deemed unable to compete due to a pre-match brawl. Following this, The Miz began a pursuit to form a tag team with Shane, claiming that they could be the best tag team in the world. Shane finally agreed to the pairing, and the two won the SmackDown Tag Team Championship at the Royal Rumble. They lost the titles at Elimination Chamber, and failed to regain them at Fastlane; in both matches, Miz was pinned. Following their match at Fastlane, a disappointed Miz and Shane hugged Miz's father, who was in the front row. After Shane consoled Miz and his father, Shane then attacked Miz from behind, turning heel. On the following episode of SmackDown, Shane explained that he was tired of people using him. He claimed that he enjoyed beating up The Miz at Fastlane and wanted to do it again at WrestleMania 35, and then scheduled a match between himself and Miz for the event. For several weeks, AJ Styles and Randy Orton interrupted each other's backstage segments on SmackDown, insulting each other. At Elimination Chamber, Orton eliminated Styles in the Elimination Chamber match. At Fastlane, after Orton had attacked Elias from behind with an RKO, he himself was then attacked by Styles with a Phenomenal Forearm. On the following episode of SmackDown, Orton took umbrage with Styles referring to SmackDown as "the house that AJ Styles built", since Orton began his career on SmackDown in 2002 and became very successful, while Styles, who debuted in WWE in 2016, spent most of his career on the independent circuit (1998–2016), with Orton also referencing Styles' time in Ring of Honor and TNA Wrestling. Styles responded by saying that Orton had everything handed to him because of his family's wrestling lineage while Styles had to actually work for it. Styles eventually challenged Orton to a match at WrestleMania 35, which was made official later that night. On the February 12 episode of SmackDown, The New Day's Kofi Kingston was a last-minute replacement for an injured Mustafa Ali in a gauntlet match to determine who would enter last in the WWE Championship Elimination Chamber match; Kingston pinned WWE Champion Daniel Bryan and lasted over an hour before being eliminated. At Elimination Chamber, Bryan retained the title in the titular match, with Kingston being the last wrestler eliminated. On the following episode of SmackDown, Kingston was granted a WWE Championship match at Fastlane after pinning Bryan in a six-man tag team match. The following week, however, Vince McMahon replaced Kingston with a returning and "more deserving" Kevin Owens. At Fastlane, The New Day (Big E, Kingston, and Xavier Woods) confronted Mr. McMahon, who scheduled a triple threat match for the title, however, Kingston was instead put in a handicap match against The Bar (Cesaro and Sheamus) and lost, while Bryan retained the title in his respective match. On the following episode of SmackDown, The New Day again confronted Mr. McMahon and Kingston asked what he had to do for a championship match. Mr. McMahon said that Kingston was not championship material, but if he could defeat Randy Orton, Samoa Joe, Cesaro, Sheamus, and Rowan in a gauntlet match the following week, he would receive a WWE Championship match against Bryan at WrestleMania 35. On the October 22, 2018 episode of Raw, Roman Reigns went on hiatus due to leukemia. He returned on the February 25, 2019 episode and explained that his leukemia was in remission and that he would return to action. At Fastlane, Reigns, Dean Ambrose, and Seth Rollins reunited for one last time as The Shield and defeated the team of Baron Corbin, Bobby Lashley, and Drew McIntyre, and The Shield performed their signature Triple Powerbomb on McIntyre through an announce table. The following night on Raw, Reigns, who had not had a match on Raw in five months, was scheduled to face McIntyre, but McIntyre brutally attacked Reigns before the match. Ambrose subsequently faced McIntyre in a falls count anywhere match in a losing effort. The following week, McIntyre challenged Reigns to a match at WrestleMania 35 and then defeated Rollins later that night. On the March 12 edition of SmackDown, Rey Mysterio pinned WWE United States Champion Samoa Joe in a Tag Team match also involving Andrade and R-Truth. As a result of Mysterio defeating Joe, Mysterio announced the following week that he would get a chance at the title at Wrestlemania. At Elimination Chamber, Finn Bálor defeated Bobby Lashley and Lio Rush in a 2-on-1 handicap match to win Lashley's Intercontinental Championship. Lashley regained the title on the March 11 episode of Raw thanks to assistance from Rush. On the March 25 episode, Bálor was originally scheduled to face Lashley and Rush in a handicap match where if he won, he would receive a title match at WrestleMania 35, but as Rush was not medically cleared, Jinder Mahal instead teamed with Lashley. Despite the odds, Bálor defeated Lashley and Mahal to earn a championship match against Lashley at WrestleMania. On March 29, 2019, WWE officially confirmed that the WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal would occur again at WrestleMania 35, thus establishing it as an annual match, and announced several participants. Matches Cruiserweight Raw/SmackDown André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal participants * Braun Strowman * Michael Che * Colin Jost * Apollo Crews * Titus O'Neil * Tyler Breeze * Jinder Mahal * No Way Jose * Bobby Roode * Chad Gable * Kalisto * Gran Metalik * Lince Dorado * Bo Dallas * Curtis Axel * Heath Slater * Rhyno * Viktor * Konnor * Andrade * Ali * Shelton Benjamin * Luke Gallows * Karl Anderson * Matt Hardy * Jeff Hardy * Otis * Tucker * EC3 * Harper WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal participants * Dana Brooke * Mickie James *Ruby Riott *Liv Morgan *Sarah Logan *Asuka *Carmella *Naomi *Lana *Mandy Rose *Sonya Deville *Zelina Vega *Nikki Cross *Kairi Sane *Ember Moon *Candice LeRae Other on-screen personnel See also * List of WWE pay-per-view events * WrestleMania Category:WrestleMania Category:2019 Pay-Per-View Events Category:World Wrestling Entertainment pay-per-view events